


Don't underestimate a soothsayer

by HashtagPomegranate



Category: The Witcher (TV)
Genre: Bathing/Washing, F/M, Light Angst, M/M, Miscommunication, Multi, Soulmate AU, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:34:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27268819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HashtagPomegranate/pseuds/HashtagPomegranate
Summary: Yennefer and Geralt overhear and misunderstand a conversation between Jaskier and a soothsayer.
Relationships: Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier | Dandelion/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg, Geralt z Rivii | Geralt of Rivia/Yennefer z Vengerbergu | Yennefer of Vengerberg
Comments: 2
Kudos: 132





	Don't underestimate a soothsayer

**Author's Note:**

> This was super self-indulgent. These three have pretty great chemistry.

The soothsayer looks at him, squints, looks at the people to his left and right, looks back at him, and quirks an eyebrow. He immediately starts to sweat. His parents, as unsuperstitious as they are, had always instilled a belief in soothsayers.

“Geralt, Yennefer, would you mind giving me a minute?”

Geralt glared at the soothsayer, seeming to know that something had happened in mere seconds that had escaped his understanding. Yennefer reached up to gently, or not so gently push at him. “Just move, Geralt. You’ll know if anything happens. With his general volume, it would be hard to miss.”

The soothsayer kindly waited until Geralt and Yennefer were gone before gesturing towards the threadbare seat across from her.

Jaskier sat down, “I assume you know?”

“Yes.” Was the answer, not curt for how short and blunt it was.

“Thank you for not saying anything.” Jaskier slumped in his chair.

“Well, you’ve clearly kept it a secret for this long.”

“They don’t need to know.”

“Let me give you some advice, free of cost,” she added when Jaskier started to reach for his coin purse. “You have two paths in front of you, one will lead to pain and then joy. The other leads to joy and then pain. It’s your choice.”

“Which is which?”

The soothsayer rolled their eyes. “Haven’t you been to a soothsayer before, boy? You need to figure that out for yourself.”

Jaskier stood, “This won’t affect his cash for defeating the siren, will it?”

“Of course not.” Apparently, he had made the soothsayer a little grumpy. “I said this was free of charge.” They resettled themselves in their seat and crossed their arms.

Jaskier bowed, hoping the politeness would help sooth any hurt feelings. He left the soothsayers hut and took a deep breath of the fresh air. While not unpleasant, the hut had smelled strongly of incense and was a little warmer than Jaskier preferred given the heavy winter clothing he and his traveling companions were wearing.

Unfortunately, the calming effect of the air was broken by the fact that Yennefer and Geralt were clearly having a heated argument in low tones. That just meant it was a day that ended in ‘Y.’ He didn’t hide his small smile while breaking the argument with a “Let’s go kill a siren, I’d prefer not to stay in the cold longer than necessary.

Gerlat made a face, but turned around and headed in the direction the soothsayer had suggested.

The next week was increasingly weird. After killing the siren and picking up Geralt’s gold, they ended up staying at an inn. Geralt even sprung for a room for each of them. Jaskier wasn’t used to having a bed by himself when they traveled and luxuriated in the not-particularly-comfortable mattress, even if he missed hearing the sleeping breathing of his companions.

Then, when they had to sleep outside, Yennefer created a heat bubble and actually included Jaskier. Usually she created her tent, invited Geralt in, and left Jaskier by his lonesome; although there generally was a roaring fire prepared by Geralt.

Jaskier started to worry when it was decided to take a day of rest in the nearest town. Not a day to repair armor, run errands, or refill their provisions. But just a day to rest.

The final straw for Jaskier was when Geralt insisted he ride Roach.

“Okay,” Jaskier stood in front of Roach, watching as Geralt tried to tell him to ride the horse without using any words. “What the fuck is going on? Why are both of you suddenly so kind?”

Geralt stared at him, clearly not wanting to say anything. Yennefer rolled her eyes, “We heard your conversation with the soothsayer.”

Jaskier felt as if ice had been poured over his body, before starting to feel anger. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I didn’t think you would take it well.”

“How could we take it well?” Geralt bit out.

Jaskier looked around, seeing the extra blanket on his bedroom, the remnants of the delicious dinner Yennefer had magicked, and the fact that he was being told to ride of the damn horse. “It seems as if you don’t really mind.”

“Of course we mind,” Geralt again.

“I just don’t understand why you didn’t come to us to fix this.” Yennefer added.

“Fix it?” Jaskier felt hurt now, “There’s nothing here to fix?”

“Bullshit!” Geralt stalked towards him, “How could you do this to us?”

Jaskier shrinks back. After the past week, he had started to think that all of the ‘what-ifs’ he had dreamed of over the years might actually be possible. “Then I’m sorry for being such a burden on you. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”

“You’ve never not been a burden. Why would this change anything?” Yennefer drawled, seeming to be less invested in this conversation than either of the men.

“If that’s how you feel, then I’ll take myself off of your hands. No need to feel beholden to me.”

“Dammit,” Geralt was now just at Jaskier’s side, “we just told you we wanted to fix this.”

“Well, Geralt, unless you have some untold powers, there’s nothing that can be done to unmake soulmates!”

“But we might be able to keep you from dying!”

Geralt is almost standing chest to chest with Jaskier and they’re both breathing hard. There’s a clear second where there is dead silence as Jaskier and Geralt both try to parse out what has just been yelled. And then Yennefer starts laughing.

Jaskier steps back a few feet and looks between the still confused Geralt, and Yennefer who is laughing so hard she’s holding herself up against a tree.

“You, you both thought I was dying?”

Yennefer manages to stifle her laughter, “Yes, but, just to clarify, you aren’t?”

“No, I’m not dying.”

“And Geralt is your soulmate?”

“Not just him.” Jaskier had a hard time meeting Yennefer’s eyes at this. It always seemed clear that she dealt with him for Geralt’s sake, and the laughter didn’t change that opinion.

“Both of us?” Geralt asks.

“And you didn’t tell us.” Yennefer added.

“Of course I didn’t. You both loathe fate; one running away from his child surprise, the other endlessly looking to end a binding wish from a Djinn.”

“But we didn’t choose those.”

“And you didn’t bloody well choose me either, did you? I’ve talked to you both about this over the years. I tried to let you decide and you both didn’t want something else granted by fate dragging you down. So I stayed quiet.”

“That was always some hypothetical unknown person, not you.” It was almost whispered.

He turns back to Yennefer, “You didn’t want to take a chance. As the ‘worthless musician’ that follows your boyfriend around, I honored that.” He turns back to Geralt, “And to you I was fillingless pie and a shovel of shit. I appreciate you don’t want me dead. But that doesn’t mean you want me between you.”

He turns around and starts to pack.

“What are you doing?” Geralt stands at his back.

“I’m packing. While you have implied that you could have chosen me, this is new information to you. Now that you know I’m not dying. So I…” he emphasized I to make it clear that he wouldn’t allow company, “am going to go find the nearest town, get a room at the inn, and drink myself to sleep. What you do is up to you.”

He knew they needed time to process and that wouldn’t be possible with him milling around. Instead he hastily shoved everything into his bag and set off on the two hour walk. Once he arrived in town, a bottle of vodka and his rented room made the rest of the afternoon and evening a blur.

The next morning brought a horrendous case of cottonmouth and a head that felt as if it was full of bees. Not just any bees, swarming bees. The stairwell seemed oddly unsettled, requiring slow steps and a hand pressed against the wall to keep upright.

Forgoing the traditional glance around the room, Jaskier went straight to the bar to get some food. Nothing heavy, but a lovely piece of toast. He was waiting for someone to take his order when he felt a cool hand land on his neck. He sighed in quiet comfort as the hand moved up, through his hair, spreading it’s cool comfort along the way. One could say, magically curing his hangover.

“Thank you,” he moaned to Yennefer, head still pillowed on his arms.

Her eyes seemed to sparkle in the low light. “So good of you to finally join us.” She gestured towards Geralt, the only other person in the room, somehow sitting more stiffly than usual.

As Jaskier followed Yennefer to the table, Geralt grunted out, “I’m still not happy.”

“Are you ever?” Yennefer asked him, smirking as his frown.

Geralt turned to Jaskier, “You not telling us means that we did something wrong.”

“Honesty isn’t wrong.”

“But dishonesty from fear is!”

“You call it dishonesty, I call it leaving out some details.”

“Well, it becomes ever more clear that, as a whole, we are bad at communicating?” Yennefer looks between the two men. “this is clearly a case of flawed information. But Jaskier, we’re here.”

Jaskier takes a moment, nods, stands up, and talks to the bartender for a moment before returning to the table. In this amount of time, Geralt reached across the rough table to grab Yennefer’s hand.

“Follow me.” Jaskier headed towards the stairs, that felt far more stable than they did his previous trip.

He opened up a door to one of the rooms, clearly not the one he had stayed in the previous night. “I’ve asked them to bring us up a bath. I feel as though I have bathed in alcohol and sweat.”

“Better communication doesn’t mean that we need to know everything.” Yennefer drawled, still following him into the room.

Jaskier huffed at that, before starting to take off his boots. “Well, I figured you would want to see my marks. I’ve been following you for so long that fate decided my feet should be my brand. It’s how I knew I was meant to travel.” He starts to roll down his socks. “I would like to remind you that I have already requested a bath, and apologize, I haven’t washed my feet nearly as often as I should to hide.”

Geralt wrinkled his nose, “That needs to change.”

When the knock sounded on the door, Geralt made a motion to halt Jaskier from standing, before getting the door and directing the maid on where the tub should go.

It was odd to let Geralt handle the bath, a pure role reversal.

As soon as the tub was set up, and the water steaming, Jaskier shed the rest of his clothes before sinking into the water. “You know, you two are welcome to join me.”

“Maybe later.” Yennefer smiled, “I don’t know where you’ve been.”

Jaskier chuckles and watches as Geralt sits next to Yennefer. He washed himself in relative silence, which only made everything feel a little stranger. Usually he bathed in public bathing establishments, where even if one was alone, there was plenty of side chatter.

As soon as he was done, he stood up, unashamed of the figure he cut.

“Good.” Yennefer stood and immediately conjured a portal. She jerked her head, pointing both Geralt and Jaskier through.

“Is this going to lead somewhere that I will regret not having clothing on?”

“It leads to my bedroom, so that depends on you.”

“Why didn’t you do this before I spent my coin?”

Geralt laughed at Jaskier’s question, they both knew what the answer was going to be.

“Well,” Yennefer started, innocent as could be, “How could I know what you were trying to do? You didn’t tell us anything?”

Jaskier started laughing as he walked through the portal and straight into Yennefer’s massive bathing pool.


End file.
